Local MP named Parliament’s Apprenticeship Ambassador

The MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough, Andrew Jones, has been named Apprenticeship Ambassador in Parliament.

As well as engaging with employers and advocating apprenticeships, Andrew will be responsible for encouraging MPs to get involved in promoting apprenticeships in their constituencies and providing them with the information and advice they need to do so.

Andrew, who worked with local company Barker Brooks to promote a nation-wide apprenticeship guide, says he feels privileged to be given this important role.

Andrew Jones said:

Last year there were 520,600 apprenticeship starts in this country. That is an increase of nearly a quarter of a million since 2009/10, so there has been a huge jump in apprenticeships. That’s thousands more people who have been able to start their careers or are working to improve their skills for the future. In the Harrogate and Knaresborough constituency we have also seen a significant increase.

We need to make sure this momentum is maintained and one of my aims is to change attitudes towards apprenticeships. They are hugely beneficial to both the employee and the apprentice. I want to see apprenticeships given the same status that they were decades ago. They are part of the solution to the rebalancing of the economy that we need, as there are huge increases in the number of apprenticeships in the north, and in sectors of our economy that we need to grow, such as manufacturing.

There are 650 MPs, so we could have 650 local champions promoting apprenticeships up and down the country, driving even faster growth.

I am looking forward to starting, and working with colleagues across parliament to help them become those local champions.

Andrew is personally joining the apprenticeship movement by taking on an apprentice in his constituency office.

Andrew Jones MP added:

A suitable vacancy has opened in my office and other MPs tell me they have been highly impressed when taking on an apprentice.